buckeyematt2 wrote:If a beard was required or encouraged by the New Testament church, it seems like we would hear about it in the New Testament - the way church fathers talked about it in later centuries. For it would have been a requirement that was necessary to communicate to Gentile believers. As the OP mentioned, "...it also seems probable that many of the Gentiles which joined themselves to the early Church were from Roman, Greek and various other cultures whose cultural fashions often promoted bare faces." Since it was not mentioned even in the minimal requirements for Gentile converts in Acts 15, the wearing of beards - or not - doesn't seem to have been an issue. As it is not, therefore, a biblical requirement, I feel like any requirement either way in this area is merely a cultural matter, and doesn't sit well with the principle of Christian liberty (see Romans 15; Colossians 2:16-23; Galatians 5, etc.).
A couple of things- the New Testament was not an exact manuel for everything the Apostles orally started the Churches with- the Church was started orally- the only reason we even know about the headcovering for women, was because Apostle Paul was needing to bring correction into the Corinthian Church by way of his 'epistle'.
There were traditions taught orally that the Apostles didn't write down, for the New Testament- perhaps not everyone trusts this, but it is true- You have to realize and keep in mind, the New Testament Church had been established and growing, churches started in every city way before the Apostles wrote the gospels and epistles-
So there were oral and written traditions:
2 Thessalonians 2:15King James Version (KJV)
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word, or our epistle.
At that time, the New Testament wasn't the source for starting Churches- and Apostolic teachings/doctrine- so they well may have encouraged beards, just because they didn't see the need to include that in New Testament doesn't make it not so- I don't know- as you say, the early fathers probably re-emphasized what was already taught- the Church- with Jesus Christ as Head, was where truth was to be found:
1 Timothy 3:15King James Version (KJV)
15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The Gospels didn't mention beards, but you have to figure- Jesus started the Church with Jewish men, who would have not written down either, that beards were no longer required.-
I don't know for sure but I do consider that the early writers encouraged it because it was originally taught to men of faith, orally. And there was no need to include that in an epistle to correct it, like there was with the headcovering.